loose timing belt in only ONE spot

[weegee411]

So I was driving my car the other day going under 30 and my car just jerked a little bit and shut off to not start again. I just had my timing belt done not any longer than 3 weeks ago by satan with the t belt, both pulleys and tensioner and b/s belt. When I finally get home I see that my timing belt cover is broken so I take it off and inspect the belt. The belt has tension in every spot except one spot that stretches across the cams and is loose enough to almost slide off or easily jump a tooth. so I line up my cam marks at the dowels straight up and my cam marks are still in place. I also did a cylinder leak down test and it rotates my motor. I got a full refund from satan plus an extra 300 for other potential damage.
Any advice to whats wrong with the timing? Just the tensioner and bent valves?

 

[DSM_PWR]

If your talking about the little slack between the Intake/Exhaust Cam gears...

Thats pretty normal. A Master Mitsu Tech once told me why but i wasnt paying attention back then..

Once you start your car up it should tighten itself back up, but once you've sat for a while it will get a little slacky..

Although the way you described it about being able to pull it off the gears... that is not normal. Take it to a reputable mitsu shop and have them re-time it. The tension was setup wrong

 

[weegee411]

Yeah I got scared the first time I checked a timing belt awhile back that had a little slack but did some searching and found that was normal, but this slack is not normal and I can pretty much slide it over a tooth onto the next one. Im just worried if the valves are bent or not.

 

[DSM_PWR]

What were your compession test results?

 

[ramsack]

yeah it is completely normal even to feel dangerously loose between the cams. it's from the engine stopping at a point where the valve springs are pushing against the cams and trying to rotate them. much like how your engine moves on a leak-down test.

 

[weegee411]

I'm doing the compression test now. I will post the numbers when its done.
Ramsack you have to explain a little more where you are coming from? I have bumped my motor all the way around and every other spot has the tension you talk about. But in this one spot its insanely loose. Like I can pull the belt up by hand and get clearance from all the way around either cam. I understand that 3/4 inch is reasonable slack but this slack is more than an inch.

 

[david-b]

Had the same thing on mine when I dropped the motor in. Was tight when I timed it, and after putting it was really loose between the 2 cams. Turned motor by hand and it picked back up.

But if it shut off, sounds like you got a problem there. Compression test!

 

[ramsack]

i can't explain it any better than i did before. if you have ever done a timing belt and had to move cam gears you can feel the valve spring tension offer resistance to turning the cam. it sounds like your belt wasn't tensioned correctly at all if it's that bad. or maybe your hydraulic tensioner is taking a poo.

 

[weegee411]

Alright so I took apart my valve cover before I did the compression test just to make sure there wasn't a problem there so I could mark it off. As soon as I did that I found a shredded balance shaft belt. &*(^* so it looks like something terrible where do I start now to see how much damage was done because of that?

 

[ramsack]

well i would start by getting the timing cover off there and making sure the balance shaft belt pieces are all out of there. hopefully your car is still timed. it's not really safe to run it like that so i would either wait for a new belt or a balance shaft eliminator.

 

[pj91gsx]

For once I disagree with you guys who say that slack is normal, but to say slack in the belt is not very descriptive at all. If your belt is not tight the slack will be between the exhaust cam and the tensioner pulley. The slack in between the cams is what cause my friend to destroy his motor in his honda. I never ever have any slack on any of the timing belts between the cams and in the tensioner pulley area, out of the 10 or so ive set since ive been working with dsms.

 

[ramsack]

both my dsms have slack between the cams. my mr2 had slack between the cams. every other dsm i have seen has slack between the cams. if there is slack between the exhaust cam and the tensioner then it is obviously not tensioned.